Crutch & Cast
by White Pontiac Heaven
Summary: Sweet tree, fall with me. Fall fast, fall free. Fall with me. Casey/Elliot, as always.


**Side Note**: One down, fourteen to go! :) I've had this saved, half-done for a long while now and decided I could use this as one of my fifteen stories. I'm not sure if it's any good, but it's something. Tell me what you think, please!

**Disclaimer**: I own nada. Song is "Ambulance" by Tv on the Radio. Lovely song, listen to it. All mistakes are mine as I don't use a beta. (:

* * *

_I will be your ambulance if you will be my accident_

_and I will be your screech and crash if you will be my crutch and cast_

_and I will be your one more time if you will be my one last chance_

The summer sun ducks behind buildings as it makes way for the moon. The process seems to take an eternity, and Casey Novak doesn't have the patience. The humidity has become rather intense lately, and the heat is simply unbearable, as always.

The pale-skinned attorney pulls her hair back into a sloppy ponytail, though she figures she shouldn't have even bothered; the majority of her crimson hair usually falls out of the rubber band anyway. And as she predicts, strands begin to shape her face. She blows air upward in a frustrated attempt to shoo the unwanted locks from her face, but it does nothing.

She sighs and leans back in her office chair, taking a few heavy breathes as if it'll cool her. Once again, the air conditioning is out at One Hogan Place, and just her luck, it seems to be solely her floor lacking the cool air. She's opened a window, hoping to catch any breeze, should there be one, but the air is still.

Same temperature inside as outside.

Most of the employees have abandoned their offices for the day, so Casey sees it as her chance to get comfortable. She ditches her formal attire and throws on a shirt that doesn't belong to her and the pair of shorts she always keeps in her office for days like this.

Elliot doesn't need to know she's claimed his forgotten clothing.

The last sign of the sun has finally hidden itself, and sure enough, the subtle flow of air escapes from the vent, signaling that the A/C is in fact up and running. She's been suffering in the heat since lunchtime, and it isn't until now, after the sun goes down, that it works again.

Casey growls.

She hates irony with a passion.

Once over her silly fit, she sits on the sill of the window, staring out it. Headlights flick on as do the street lights and the temperature starts to drop. She could honestly do without summer. All that comes out of it is sweat and mirages anyway.

Feeling comfortable enough to do so, Elliot casually lets himself in the A.D.A.'s office and takes a seat on the small couch as he watches Casey stand up, and put all her upper weight into closing the jammed window. Using her sailor lingo, she threatens the window to shut and he chuckles to himself.

"Guess I didn't get the memo for casual day." He says after realizing how choice of clothing.

She jumps at the sound of his voice, and the window slams shut. Before she can even turn to face him, she knows immediately who it is behind her. Aside from his voice, which has been imprinted in her head like a once annoying song that's overplayed on the radio, Elliot Stabler is the only one who teases her like so.

She won't like and say she doesn't like it, though there are the times where he gets on her nerves. But at the end of the day, she finds herself missing it, craving it even. That overplayed song has grown on her. It's safe to say it's one of her favorites.

The detective offers an innocent look as she glares at him.

"What?"

"Ever heard of knocking?" Casey makes a face as she crosses her arms.

"Yeah, but it just gets you nowhere when the person on the other side of the door ignores you." He says, referring to one of their previous encounters.

"I have told you over and over, El. I wasn't ignoring you. I wasn't even here."

"If you say so." He shrugs and gets a dramatic eye roll out of her. He doesn't know why, but she's become his favorite person to pick on.

"So what's up?" She asks, dismissing his juvenile behavior as she takes a seat at her desk.

"Just stopping by," Elliot says, working up any kind of courage to ask her to dinner. He isn't one to get troubled, especially when it comes to the opposite sex, but something about her and the way she's started to break in his thoughts has his panties in a bunch. And it isn't until he sees Casey raise a brow that he becomes self conscious about his cool factor too.

The redhead thinks back, about a month or so, and remembers the last time he had just "stopped by". Sure, there was alcohol involved. Sure, they didn't actually do anything. But they came close, very close, and if not for the noise coming from the next room scaring them, they wouldn't have stopped whatever it was they were about to do.

There isn't a word she can find that could possibly describe it. As long as he's at a fair distance, everything is as it usually is. Just two colleagues working, just two friends talking. And then he'll cross that line he isn't aware of and cloud her judgment, like he's doing right now

She must've missed him making the space between them virtually nonexistent.

And she doesn't care because along with him comes the fog. If she looks anywhere but in his direction, she sees nothing but gray.

"Elliot," Her tone says this is probably a bad idea, he knows, but like her, he doesn't care. His closeness has her heart beating faster than his, and though her voice is saying that maybe they shouldn't, he knows that isn't what she wants. Her eager eyes give her away.

They always do.

Her palms open against his chest as their lips brush. He hadn't planned on anymore than this; all he was after was a kiss, for now, thinking maybe his feelings were wrong. The feelings are still the same and he's all wrapped up in wrong, he wants more. But it isn't him that goes any further.

Almost as soon his lips are about to pull away, Casey doesn't let them. His parted lips are her ticket in and he doesn't object. Her breath on his is a perfect reason to forget his wife and let his hands slip up his friend's shirt into smooth, unguarded territory, tracing patterns across her skin.

He knows that he should get out now, while he still can, but he can't.

He won't.

Elliot's lips make their way to her collar bone, and as he nips at her, she knows she wants more. But she can't.

She won't.

But she will wait for his lips to be on hers again.

And once they are, she pulls away.

Elliot realizes that she must be thinking the same thing: the fog isn't as thick as they wish it was.

"You should leave," Her voice cracks a bit when she speaks, so she clears her throat in a subtle manner and he agrees. He needs to leave, while they're still on good terms. There will be tension, granted, but they're still good.

So he does, he leaves.

Casey leans against her desk, touching her fingers to her lips. She's been wondering if she felt something or not, had been waiting to find out.

She found out.

She wants him, and she wants him to want her. She wants to know what he feels like, in every way she can imagine. She school-girl crush has turned into something so much more and she's not happy with this. Elliot Stabler is just another guy she can't be with. She tends to pick the ones that don't feel what she does.

And the few that have are committed and while they like her, they just don't like her enough. Which is okay, because she doesn't give them the chance. And why would she break someone else's happiness, however fake it might be? She's never been the other woman, and up until now, she's had no intentions of being so.

Images race through her mind. Elliot coming up with an excuse as to why he didn't make it home one night, them hiding in her office "working". Casey Novak is a good person, but right now, she wishes she had the gut not to be. She's got a hunger and she believes that he can feed to satisfy.

* * *

It's been four days.

Four days and twelve hours since he last kissed Casey, or anybody for that matter. To be fair, he has kissed Kathy, but it's a mere peck on the cheek here and there. He doesn't count it.

He isn't sure of the last time he's kissed anyone like he kissed the Casey. He had put something into that act of like, something that made his head spin.

He's weighing his options now, not that he actually has any.

There's his family, he adores them, specifically his kids but there really is no need to bring them into anything. There's his wife, Kathy, who's been by his side from the beginning until recently. He loves her, just not in the same way he used to. She's sick of him now, his job and its effects. She'd rather walk away then go through any more of this, because sometimes that's what you do when there's nothing left in you.

And then there's Casey, this woman he's known about for five years, and has been close to for a year and a half. He doesn't know her favorite color, but he knows she's stubborn and high-spirited and he'd do anything to know the rest, to experience her. Her front wall is the toughest, with barbed wire and electrical wiring. It's built high and long, guarding her heart and he wants his hands on the blueprints, revealing the weakest points in which he can tear down the walls.

Her back wall is sticks and stones. Anything out of place and it all comes crashing down on top of him. But, he's willing to take the risk. He slips on his coat and puts his phone in his pocket.

"Work again?" Kathy asks, not bothering to mention the fact that he's about to leave without his gun and badge.

"Yepp."

"Kay." She shakes her head, trying to gain control of her wandering imagination.

* * *

"Just stoppin' by?" Casey mocks as she stands between her front door and the wall. Elliot had grown a pair five minutes previous to their current conversation, and he decided that he's going to go after what he wants. Even if it doesn't work, he can at least say he tried.

He smiles at her. "No."

"Then what're you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you." He feels the words slip so easily from his tongue, and for once, she doesn't have a sarcastic remark.

Instead, she holds her ground, wondering if he's being genuine or wants an easy fuck. Either way she's letting him, she just wants everyone's intention to be clear.

"Why?"

"I have to have a reason now?"

"Depends,"

"On what?"

"Well if I like your reason, then yes, you do." She smiles and steps aside, inviting him in.

White walls, welcoming furniture, plenty of framed photos of family and friends, and the smell of rain. It's odd how he would have never believed this is her place. It doesn't seem to fit her. Or maybe it does, he isn't sure yet. All of her windows are open, letting the cooled summer air in as the rain beats down outside.

He notices she's still in her heels and slacks. She must have just gotten home. He follows her into the kitchen, where coffee is brewing. Big surprise there. He smiles as she turns around to face him, and she smiles back. It isn't long before his breath is on hers again and, with more privacy than her office, they don't hold back.

They're sucking the air from each others' lungs and still, it isn't enough.

So the bedroom seems to be the only place where it can possibly be enough. Casey falls back on her bed, missing articles of clothing, like him. He hovers over her, but they do nothing but smile and he falls on his back next to her. He watches as she looks up at the window above them, listens as the downpour floods the ground twelve stories below.

She flinches as a drop falls on her nose, and he laughs, burying his face in her neck. She feels his lips on her shoulder and in this moment, she decides this is exactly what she wants, what she needs. His hand slips in hers, and she hopes he knows that she isn't about to let him go.

_Sweet tree, fall with me_

_fall fast, fall free_

_fall with me_

* * *

**S/N**: Reviews! (:


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